Board feed squaring device for rotary cutoff machines



0 1963 w. J. GOETTSCH ETAL 3,107,539

BOARD FEED SQUARING DEVICE FOR ROTARY CUTOFF MACHINES Filed Jan. 11, 1961 INVENTORS Q WALTER J. GOETTSCH o- HENRY w. MOSER United States Patent BOARD FEED SQUARING DEVICE FUR RQTARY CUTOFF MAQS Walter J. Goettsch, Kenilworth, Ill., and Henry W. Moser, Haddonfield, N.J., assignors to Samuel M. Langston Company, Camden, N .J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed .l'an. 11, 1961, Ser. No. 31,985 2 Claims. (Cl. 9358) The present invention relates to the manufacture of box blanks tlrom double faced corrugated paperboard and more particularly to a device for use with a combination of automated machines for this purpose.

In the production of box blank-s of corrugated paperboard, it is currently the practice to use a well-known double facer machine to manufacture a continuous web of corrugated paperboard which is a relatively stiff material and the web is continuously advanced by the machine. Additional machines are placed in the path of travel of this web and automatically progressively perform different manufacturing operations on the web or board so as to ultimately produce box blanks of the requirel length and width. These additional machines may include such as a slit-ter-scorer and a rotary cutoff machine. Types of these three machines are well-known in the art as are their functions and principles of operation. In this connection, reference is made to US. Patent No. 2,950,- 658 which discloses and describes such a combination of machinery to efiect the desired end result.

The present invention relates specifically to a device for utilization in such a combination of machines for insuring that trimmed and slit webs travelling from a rotary slit-ter, scorers and trimmers, on the slitter-scorer machine are caused to enter the cutoli machine in a line which is substantiallyv perfectly perpendicular to the rotary cutoff knife blades. This is broadly accomplished by utilizing mechanism for initially squaring up the trimmed and slit Web or webs sideways with respect to the rotary cutters and subsequently during operation continuously moving the trimmed and slit Web or Webs sideways to compensate for any movement that the rotary slitters, scorers and trimmers may make sideways for edge control with respect to the web or webs being fed from the double-facer. As is known, a web emerging from a double-facer machine and travelling to the slitter-scorer usually weaves from side to side and it is therefore necessary to compensate for this weaving by moving the slitters, scorers and trimmers sideways, since otherwise an excessively wide board must be made which would result in excessive scrap and high costs. Such edge control can be accomplished manually with means built into the known slit-terscorer, or can be accomplished automatically with several known types of mechanisms.

When such a slitter-scorer is moved sideways in either direction, however, for the control described above, then the angle of entry of the board or web between the cutofi knives will be changed. If the board or web enters between the rotary cutoff knives at an angle other than 90 to the cutoff knife blades, then the severed end edges will not be square with the trimmed side edges and an out of-squ-are box blank will be the result.

In the past, purchasers and assemblers of box blanks were willing to accept box blanks which varied considerably trom desired lengths and the fact that conditions prevailing in the art resulted in out-of-square box blanks. However, in recent years there has been an insistent demand from such purchasers and assemblers to develop machinery which will cut box blanks to close tolerances in length on the cutoff machine. Arrangements accordingly have been developed for insuring extremely close tolerances on box blank lengths and additionally close tolerance registration of severed edges in relation to "ice printed matter when using a pre-printed liner in a known manner. One such arrangement which is eXtremely effective to this end is shown and described in pending US. application for patent Serial Number 836,694 for Machine for Processing Linear Material, and which is assigned to a common assignee with the present application. Reference is made' to this application for details of such mechanism. Broadly, however, the mechanism shown in that application includes in a machine for processing linear material, feed means and repetitive processing means to process the linear material at predetermined intervals. Drive means for the feed means and the processing means are utilized and synchronizing means are incorporated for automatically and continuously adjusting the relative speeds of the feed and processing means with respect to one another to insure that the processing will occur at predetermined intervals along the length of the linear material passing through the machine.

The mechanism shown and described in this abovementioned application for patent serves to maintain within very close tolerances registration of severed edges with printed matter on the pie-printed liner and additionally holding cutoff length to close tolerances. Such mechanism, however, does not include means to insure that the box blank severed edges will be square with the trimmed edges as pointed out above, and this ability to cut box lengths to close tolerances has resulted in purchasers and assemblers ever more cognizant of out-of-square box blanks.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a device which will insure that the box blanks will have the severed edges square with the trimmed edges and to incorponate this device in a combination with other mechanism for effecting different operations on a travelling web or web of double taced corrugated paperboard. Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof when taken together with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective pictorial View of the device of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of control means and limit means for operation of the device; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic wiring diagram for operation of the mechanism. 7

Referring now in detail to the drawings, and with particular reference to FIG. 1, there is shown a triplex slitterscorer mechanism of a known type generally designated 10 which includes three sets of operating heads, one of which is indicated at 12 operating to slit, score and trim a travelling web of corrugated double faced board 14 moving in direction of arrow 16 from a double facer machine, not shown. In a well-known manner, any of the sets of cutter heads can be brought into operative position by rotation of the assembly by means of rotation of main shaft 18. This mechanism also as is well-known, permits the making up and adjustment of dilierent set ups on the cutting heads which are inactive and while another set is operating on the web.

As is well-known, the center shaft 18 is the shaft around which the sets of rotary slitter-scorer-edge-trimmer shafts index successively into operating position when changing the set up in preparation to running box blanks of a difierent width for a new order. Any axial movement of the slitter-scorer to accommodate the weaving movement of the travelling web also is directly affected through and to this center shaft 18. If such an axial movement is made, however, then the severed web or webs will not be presented perpendicularly to the cutter blades in the rotary cutter section.

The present invention is applicable to either single rotary cutoff machines or double rotary cutoff machines. In the drawings, a double rotary cutoff machine is i1lus trated with a front and upper rotary cutoff generally designated and a rear and lower rotary cutoff generally designated 22. In the case of a single rotary cutoff machine, only one trimmed strip or set of trimmed strips enters and travels through the machine, and all of them are cut off to the same length during each set up. In the case of the double rotary cutofi machine, two trimmed strips or sets of strips enter and travel through the cutoff machine. One trimmed strip or set of strips travels to and between the knives of the front and upper rotary cutoff 20 and the other trimmed strip or set of strips travels to and between the knives of the rear and lower rotary cutoff 22 in a well-known manner. Each of the two trimmed strips or sets of strips are cut off to a different length during each set up. In the drawing, a strip 140 is shown being fed to rotary cutoff 2t) and a strip 14b is being fed to rotary cutoff 22. Depending upon the manner in which the trimmed strips are fed to either a single or double rotary cutoff device governs whether or not a single or two-board feed squaring device is required.

The mechanism for accomplishing board feed squaring is identical for each set of rotary cutoffs and accordingly, the same references are applied to similar parts in the following description. This mechanism includes a rod 24 mounted in guides 26 and 28 and axially freely slidable therein. The piston rod 30 of fluid cylinder 32 is attached to an end of the rod 24. Fluid pressure is applied to the piston rod end of the cylinder 32 by inlet conduit 34 which causes the rod 30 to exert constant pulling force on rod 24 in the direction toward the cylinder 32. An exhaust conduit 36 is also provided for the cylinder 32 in a known manner. A paper guide 38 is adjustably secured on rod 24 by means of a set screw such as at 40. Indicia such as shown at 42 can be provided for indicating proper adjustment of the paper guide 38. One end of a flexible stranded steel Wire cable 44 or the like is attached to the end of rod 24 opposite that secured to piston rod 30 by means of any known type of connector 46. The cable 44 is partially wrapped around sheaves 48, 50 and 52, and the end then secured to a lever 54 pivotally mounted at 56 on a bracket 58 which is suitably secured to the frame of the triplex slitter-scorer machine. The end of lever 54 opposite to that to which the cable is secured is pivotally attached to a connecting pin 60. The connecting pin 60 is connected to the center shaft 18 by means of a thrust bearing generally designated 64. Each of the sheaves 48, 50 and 52 are mounted for free rotation as will be explained hereinafter. This arrangement, in conjunction with the pulling force on rod 24, exerts a constant push on pin 60 to exert a constant push against the triplex slitter-scorer machine center shaft 18. The lever 54 is pivoted at its center and this results in a oneto-one ratio so that with any given axial movement of center shaft 18, there will be produced a simultaneous and identical amount of movement, in the same direction, of not only the rotary slitter-scorer-trimmer shafts but also the rod 24 and paper guide 38 attached thereto. Consequently, when utilizing this arrangement, any axial movement of shaft 18 made manually or automatically for edge control, will reproduce this movement in the paper guide 38 to thus maintain constant the angle of entry of the slit box blank strip or strips into therotary cutoff machine. As is known, a web travelling from the slitter-scorer to the cutofi machine consistently tends to drift or travel to the operating or drive side of the cutoff machine depending upon the web feeding characteristics of the particular combination of machines in the machinery line. The guide 38 is set on the edge of the traveling web toward which it tends to drift or travel. For this reason only one paper guide 38 is required for each trimmed strip or set of strips travelling to the rotary cutoff knives. The guide 38 is designed in such a way that it is symmetrical about its vertical line and therefore can be secured to rod 24 so as to guide either outer edge of the travelling web strip or sets of strips. When using two sets of rotary cutoff devices as shown in the drawings, a cable 44a is connected to cable 44 as at 66, and

this cable 44a serves to control the paper guide for the lower rear cutoff 22 in a manner identical with that for the front upper cutoff 20. Since a web enters a double cutoff machine at two different levels, this makes it possible to put a paper guide 38 on the inside edge of either of the slit strips or set of slit strips when required. It is to be noted that one paper guide is adequate to guide the travelling web entering each set of rotary cutoff knives regardless of whether it is in one strip or slit into several adjacent strips.

The sheaves 48 and 50 are operatively supported on bracket 68. As set forth before, the sheave 48 is mounted for free rotation in any known manner. Sheave 50 is mounted on pin 70 for free rotation thereon. The pin 7 70 is vertically secured in a slide 72. A shaft 74 is secured to one end of the slide 72 by means of a pin or the like and is provided with a threaded portion as at 76. An internally threaded gear 78 is threadedly engaged with the threads 76 on shaft 74 and restrained from movement other than rotation as shown. A gear 80 in mesh with gear 78 is mounted on the output shaft of a ratio motor 82 of a known commercially available type. The slide 72 has beveled edges at 84 and 86 for coaction with micro-switches 88 and 90 respectively. The microswitches are so spaced that upon movement of the slide 72a predetermined amount, a circuit to the motor will be cut out. 'It will be apparent that upon energizing the motor, and since it is a reversible motor, it can be caused to rotate in the desired direction and move the sheave 50 104 and serves to energize motor 82 in one direction or p the other in an apparent manner. The micro-switches 88 and 90 are connected into lines 102 and 104 respectively and in operation, if slide 72 moves in a direction more than the predetermined amount, which in one application can be plus or minus, 4" then the micro-switch WhiCh iS normally closed in the circuit will be opened to break the motor circuit thus eliminating the possibility of jamming the slide or moving it into a position from which it cannot be adjusted in both directions.

In setting up the device for operation, sheave slide 72 is moved to a central position with the bevels 84 and 86 at approximately an equal distance from the micro-limit switches 88 and 90 respectively. The paper guide 38 is secured to the bar 24 in line with the trimmed edge of the travelling web on the side toward which the web is known to drift or travel. The graduated scale on bar 24 as shown at 42. provides means for assisting in the locating of the paper guide 38 correctly on bar 24. A trial run is then made and if the rotary cutoff knives do not sever the box blank completely square with the trimmed edges, the motor of ratio motor 82 is jogged in the required direction until the sheave 50 moves a sufficient amount to zero in the paper guide 38 so that the trimmed web travels into the rotary cutoff knives exactly perpendicular to the cutoff knives and results in box blanks being cut off which have their severed edges square with their trimmed edges. Once this initial set up has taken place, then there will be an automatic correlation of the slitterscorer and the presentation of the Web to the cutter blades.

It will thus be seen from the foregoing description that means are provided for initially squaring up the travelling web with respect to the rotary cutoff knife blades and sub-. sequently for moving the trimmed and slit Web or webs sideways to compensate for any movement that the rotary slitters, scorers, and trimmers make sideways for edge control.

Manifestly minor changes can be effected in details of construction without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in and limited solely by the appended claims.

We claim: I

1. In a system for trimming edges of a continuously moving continuous web of corrugated board and transversely severing the Web into separate box blanks, coacting rotary slitting, scoring and edge trimming rolls, said rolls being transversely movable sideways to compensate for weaving of the web advancing from a double facer machine to minimize excessive trimmed edge material, transversely dis-posed rotary cutoff knives for severing the so trimmed Web, transversely movable web guide means having means engaging an edge of the web, means interconnecting said rolls and said web guide means, sideways movement of said rolls imparting commensurate correlated movement to said guide means through said interconnecting means whereby the forward end of the web is also thereby transversely guided and adjusted and the web entering the cutoff knives is automatically and continuously maintained square with the cutofi knives regardless of any sideways movement of the trailing end of the board.

2. In a system as claimed in claim 1, said web guide means including a slidably mounted rod, a centrally pivoted lever arm operatively engaged with an end of one said roll, a flexible connector attached to the other end of said arm and entrained around a plurality of pulleys and the free end of said connector being connected to said rod, sideways movement of said one roll moving said connector through said arm and thereby said rod an amount equal to the movement of said roll for identical corresponding adjustment of said rod.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 997,011 Davis Dec. 15, 1908 909,854 Denison Jan. 12, 1909 2,708,394 Allen et al May 17, .1955 2,789,483 Hose Apr. 23, 1957 

1. IN A SYSTEM FOR TRIMMING EDGES OF A CONTINUOUSLY MOVING CONTINUOUS WEB OF CORRUGATED BOARD AND TRANSVERSELY SEVERING THE WEB INTO SEPARATE BOX BLANKS, COACTING ROTARY SLITTING, SCORING AND EDGE TRIMMING ROLLS, SAID ROLLS BEING TRANSVERSELY MOVABLE SIDEWAYS TO COMPENSATE FOR WEAVING OF THE WEB ADVANCING FROM A DOUBLE FACER MACHINE TO MINIMIZE EXCESSIVE TRIMMED EDGE MATERIAL, TRANSVERSELY DISPOSED ROTARY CUTOFF KNIVES FOR SEVERING THE SO TRIMMED WEB, TRANSVERSELY MOVABLE WEB GUIDE MEANS HAVING MEANS ENGAGING AN EDGE OF THE WEB, MEANS INTERCONNECTING SAID ROLLS AND SAID WEB GUIDE MEANS, SIDEWAYS MOVEMENT OF SAID ROLLS IMPARTING COMMENSURATE CORRELATED MOVEMENT TO SAID GUIDE MEANS THROUGH SAID INTERCONNECTING MEANS WHEREBY THE FORWARD END OF THE WEB IS ALSO THEREBY TRANSVERSELY GUIDED AND ADJUSTED AND THE WEB ENTERING THE CUTOFF KNIVES IS AUTOMATICALLY AND CONTINUOUSLY MAINTAINED SQUARE WITH THE CUTOFF KNIVES REGARDLESS OF ANY SIDEWAYS MOVEMENT OF THE TRAILING END OF THE BOARD. 